Ferguson Rotary Hoe

[Del Huebner]

Just got home with a Ferguson RKO-20 Rotary Hoe. Neighbor stopped by and wanted to know if I would be interested in buying it. Didn't need it but bought it any way because it was a Ferguson and in such good shape. Does this have the wooden bushings? It has grease fittings on the journals but the bushings are gone. Are they available anywhere? Are these rotary hoes very rare or fairly common? I was just thinking about reconditioning and painting it.

 

[maxwell99]

Del,
great looking machine.
I am not going to ask because it would make me look stupid,
but I am sure there is someone out there in Fergy land that does not know what a Rotary Hoe was used for.

must have been an important tool or Fergy would not have made one, but I never saw one used.
??????????????????????

 

[s19438]

my dad had one. you had be on the look-out as the "hoe" would sometimes toss clumps of dirt/grass even stones in the air.

 

[Del Huebner]

The only time I ever used one was on my uncles farm back in the 50's. Pulled it with a Farmall F-20. If I remember correctly it was to weed and break up the crusty ground when the corn was very small.Never did figure out how it didn't take the corn out along with the weeds but it didn't.

 

[rdandersom]

I believe this same hoe saw also sold by Dearborn among other brands.The old guy I got mine from thought it was a Brady.A ford dealer was able to get me wooden bushings in the 90"s for mine.

 

[maxwell99]

that was my thought, just looking at the tool.

looked more like a tool to drag over the fresh disc land to maybe bust up clods, level, etc:

would appear that if you pulled it over small plants, it would just flip them right out of the ground.

somehow dad even knew when I got off the row and plowed up corn or tobacco plants with the cultivator,
never could figure out how he knew I did it.
-----
back in the day, I had a friend replanting corn with a hoe, around mid afternoon he got tired, buried the rest of the corn seed, then when swimming in the creek.

about two weeks later he got a good whipping when the corn he buried came up,
I told him, next time bury the corn seed deeper.

 

[Ron Muhlenkamp]

Del has it right. if you got a good rain and hot sun shortly after planting, the ground formed a crust that was hard on young plants. The hoe broke up the crust, the faster you went the better it worked. Also, if you plowed dry ground, towing the hoe backwards did a great job of breaking up the clods.

 

[JMOR]

The greatest value in one now is to rip it apart & sell the individual 'star' wheels to decorators for around $10 apiece. No one crops like that anymore.

 

[2tractors]

So that"s what I have! No wonder it didn"t work well as an airator even with 2 stacks of blocks.

 

[Tim Daley(MI)]

Hi Del-
I'm not sure if those rotary hoes used wood bearings or not -some disc harrows did. There is a company, www.woodexbearing.com, called WOODEX BEARING CO. of Georgetown, ME, that makes and sells wood bearings for these old implements. They always have an ad in the FENA 'Ferguson Furrows'. Did you know that you also can reverse the wheels so it works as a ground breaking unit in hard packed soil? Let me know if you ever want to sell it...


Tim 'PloughNman' Daley(MI)